Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar: 9 Reasons to Drink ACV Everyday

Apple cider vinegar actually enjoys a relatively noble history, thanks to the hugely versatile benefits of apple cider vinegar. The Egyptians recorded various uses for this simple liquid ranging from weight loss to skin treatments. Christopher Columbus touted apple cider vinegar’s awesome abilities: he used it to sidestep scurvy on his ships.

Even Hippocrates (you know, the guy who said “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” and is now known as the father of modern medicine) knew of this stuff and recommended it to his patients for its healing properties.

So what exactly is this stuff and how has it managed to stay in health vogue for so many centuries? Let’s find out!

What is Apple Cider Vinegar?

So what exactly is apple cider vinegar? Well, this liquid gold is made from apple juice that’s been fermented until it’s hard apple cider. Once it’s cider, it’s fermented a second time ’til it becomes apple cider vinegar – an incredibly nutrient dense elixir with over 93 different compounds.

And thanks to these various enzymes and compounds, apple cider vinegar is pretty much a Swiss Army knife of health benefits. It doesn’t just target one condition – it has a tendency to generally make everything better. That’s because it doesn’t target individual conditions like acne, daytime fatigue or excess weight but instead helps alleviate and eliminate these symptoms by striking at the root of the issues.

A huge way in which ACV promotes general health and beauty is by helping your body maintain proper pH levels for a healthy alkaline state. Your body is slightly alkaline – with a normal pH level between 7.35 and 7.45 – and for optimal health, your diet should help maintain this pH level. Acidic pH levels in the body have been linked to everything from lack of energy, acid reflux, infections, anxiety, allergic reactions, headaches, acne, and even chronic inflammatory conditions like arthritis.

By balancing the body’s pH levels and thanks to the myriad healthful compounds found in ACV, the benefits of apple cider vinegar range…a lot. Let’s go over the best ones, shall we?

9 Awesome Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits

Drinking a tablespoon or two of ACV per day is one of the easiest ways to help your body maintain a healthy alkaline level and balance your entire inner body system. Plus, you get the whole range of these awesome apple cider vinegar benefits, like…

1. Sip Apple Cider Vinegar for Weight Loss

The acetic acid in ACV has also been shown to help decrease body weight, abdominal fat, waist circumference and triglycerides (bad cholesterol). This three month long Japanese study found that this vinegar helped to not only reduce body weight, but also overall body fat mass, by:

Research also supports apple cider vinegar’s ability to make the stomach feel full, which is great for reducing the likelihood of both overeating and snacking. Extra perk? There are a gazillion delicious apple cider vinegar recipes that you can use to season your salads, vegetables, and meats as well as yummy apple cider drink recipes that you can sip on all day.

It’s a ridiculously simple way to get your daily dose of ACV and its high acetic acid which helps break down fats so your body can use them rather than storing them on your body as fat.

2. Apple Cider Vinegar for Diabetes

Of all the benefits of apple cider vinegar, this has got to be the best (and that’s saying a lot) – it’s a very useful natural remedy for those with type 2 diabetes. ACV has been shown to have numerous beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity and blood sugar levels.

How so?

Both animal and human studies showed that vinegar increased insulin sensitivity and significantly lowered blood sugar responses during meals – one study found that vinegar improved insulin sensitivity in 19% of subjects with type-2 diabetes and had the same effect on 34% of subjects with pre-diabetes

Just 2 tablespoons of ACV taken before bedtime reduced fasting blood sugar levels by up to 6%

Vinegar was shown to reduce blood sugar by 34% when eating white bread

Taking 20 grams of ACV right before a high-carb meal reduced insulin sensitivity by 19-34% and significantly lowered both blood glucose and insulin responses

And it’s not just type-2 diabetics who win from this apple cider vinegar benefit – elevated blood sugar levels are a major cause of aging as well as various diseases. We can all stand to benefit from stable blood sugar (more good news – it’ll keep your energy levels stable throughout the day as well) and adding a tablespoon or two of ACV into your daily salad, juice, or bottle of water is a super simple way to do this.

3. It’s Easy to Do an Apple Cider Vinegar Detox

All that sediment floating around in your vinegar bottle might look a little gross, but it’s fantastic for detoxing the body. The fermented sediment helps to not only kill harmful bacteria, but support the good guys in the intestines. For long-term detox, add two teaspoons to water throughout the day. If you prefer to “eat” your vinegar, use it as a salad dressing instead.

4. Apple Cider Vinegar Cholesterol Cure

‘Though most of the studies have been done on animals, apple cider vinegar has been shown to decrease triglyceride and VLDL (the bad cholesterol) levels. This is mostly attributed to the polyphenols such as chlorogenic acid found in apple cider vinegar which prevents LDL cholesterol from becoming oxidized, thus preventing the major cause of cardiovascular diseases.

Considering heart disease is the world’s leading cause of death, this is really good news. So how do you get this protective benefit? Well, an observational study found that:

“a higher intake of oil and vinegar salad dressing, an important source of alpha-linolenic acid, was associated with reduced risk of fatal IHD when women who consumed this food 5-6 times/wk were compared with those who rarely consumed this food.”

5. Apple Cider Vinegar is Antimicrobial and Antibacterial

There’s a reason why Hippocrates used vinegar as an antiseptic – this stuff is a potent antimicrobial and proven to be effective in killing human pathogens, including E. coli.

6. Apple Cider Vinegar Gives a Natural Energy Boost

A lot of people who take ACV also notice that they tend to have more focused, consistent energy levels throughout the day. This boost in energy is again most likely due to ACV’s acetic acid content which slows the digestion of starch and prevents your blood sugar levels from spiking after meals. The potassium, amino acids and antioxidants in apple cider vinegar probably help, too.

7. Apple Cider Vinegar Acid Reflux Prevention

There are many health professionals coming out now to declare that contrary to common (mis)conception, acid reflux and GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) are caused by too little stomach acid, not too much.

One of the easiest ways to remedy this is by adding one to two tablespoons of ACV to your daily diet – I can personally vouch for this. I occasionally get crampy, acidic stomach discomfort when I eat too much and then walk around – a spoonful of ACV with a splash of aloe vera mixed in with water is one of the best instant, natural cures I’ve found for that.

8. Apple Cider Vinegar as a Potential Cancer Preventative

Vinegar was found in animal and test tube studies to both inhibit and kill various types of cancer cells. ‘Though the vinegar used in these studies is rice, not apple cider, vinegar and there have been no conclusive studies proving the same in humans – we’re going to conclude that it might be possible that ACV may help prevent cancer and considering there are no side effects from ACV, it’s worth taking it at least for its many other health benefits.

9. The Uses for Apple Cider Vinegar are Long and Varied

Okay, this isn’t a health benefit – but it’s still a huge perk. Like we mentioned before, ACV is sort of the Swiss Army knife of health benefits…as well as in household and beauty uses.

Seriously, this stuff is crazy good at multi-tasking. Take a peek at 32 uses of apple cider vinegar!

Where to Get Apple Cider Vinegar

To get the full benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar – get the good stuff. It is very affordable, at around $6 for a big bottle so go crazy and splurge 🙂

I – and pretty much everyone else – recommend Bragg’s Organic Raw, Unfiltered ACV. It contains the “mother” – that gunk-y brown stuff at the bottom that’s so good for you – and can be bought from most supermarkets as well as Amazon.

After growing up a perpetually pudgy kid, Jessica discovered real food - and her waistline shortly afterward. When she's not crafting concoctions in the kitchen, she spends her free time writing about food, making her own deodorant, watching sci-fi, doing headstands, and looking for gluten free food that doesn't suck.

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2 comments

Sheila wagstaff says
November 3, 2016

I found a book in a second- hand book shop in Canada 1980 extolling the virtues of ACV and how the Farmers of Vermont mixed it in cattle food with great success.keeping their cattle so healthy and productive,the Farmers and their wives laced their mealtimes with ACV also.!!!!!!!